‘Ban These GM Foods Now’

By Steve Dube Western Mail

Three new studies into the health effects of GM foods have triggered fresh demands for GM components in human food and animal feed to be banned immediately.

The first of the key studies, conducted by Russian scientist Irina Ermakova, shows that 55% of the offspring of rats fed on GM soya died within three weeks of birth, compared with only 9% in the control group.

The second, conducted by Manuela Malatesta and colleagues in the Universities of Pavia and Urbino in Italy, showed that mice fed on GM soya experienced a slowdown in cellular metabolism and modifications to liver and pancreas.

The third study, by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation CSIRO in Australia showed that the introduction of genes from a bean variety into a GM pea led to the creation of a novel protein which caused inflammation of the lung tissue of mice.

The damage was so serious that the research was halted, and stocks of the GM pea have been destroyed. The developers have now promised that the variety will never be marketed.

The three studies, which have all been published in scientific literature in the past few weeks, have caused widespread alarm because two of them suggest that GM soya – used in a large number of foods and cattle feed – might be dangerous.

The campaign group GM Free Cymru says the studies also appear to confirm the findings of Dr Arpad Pusztai and Dr Stanley Ewen, whose paper on physiological changes in rats fed on GM potatoes caused a sensation in 1999.

The authors were widely vilified and Dr Pusztai was sacked, his research team was dismantled, and his funding stopped following an alleged intervention from the Prime Minister’s office.

The Ewen/Pusztai research has never been repeated to establish its scientific veracity but Dr Brian John of GM Free Cymru, pictured, said there was now overwhelming evidence of deaths attributable to GM products among laboratory and farm animals and in the human population.

In the most deadly case of all, the premature release of the GM food supplement L-tryptophan in the USA led to a large number of human deaths – estimated at more than 100 – and the development of a new disease, eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, or EMS, which afflicted up to 10,000 people.

When StarLink maize, intended for animal fodder, found its way into the US human food chain in 2000, there was a massive food scare when it was realised that it was capable of triggering severe allergic reactions. The crop was recalled, and $9m was paid out in compensation.

‘We will never know how many GM varieties have been developed and then quietly abandoned before reaching the regulatory process as a result of deaths or physiological damage during animal feeding trials, since studies by Monsanto, Syngenta and the other GM corporations are conducted in-house and under conditions of great secrecy,’ said Dr John.

‘But we do know of at least seven cases where GM varieties have been withdrawn because of direct evidence of health damage, and there are many instances of human and animal deaths arising from GM feeding trials and premature release onto the market of GM products.

‘Yet the GM industry, and the UK and EC regulators who are charged with the protection of the public, seem to live in a permanent state of denial.’

He accused the European Commission of basing its decisions to approve GM crops on highly selective research carried out by the GM companies.

But he said the new studies showed that more research was needed into the health effects of eating genetically modified food.

‘Neither the UK government nor the European Commission can pretend any longer that GM foods are harmless,’ he said.

‘They must stop singing from the hymn-sheets provided for them by the GM industry, and recognise that they have a legal duty to protect residents and consumers.

‘There must be no further GM consents, and GM foodstuffs must be banned immediately – at least until such time that independent research on animals and humans gives GM a clean bill of health.’

Academic experts are backing their call for more research.

Professor Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the School of Sciences in the University of Sunderland, said genetic modification of food was not without danger to the consumer.

‘They may be affected by genetic changes that subsequently lead to serious chronic illnesses such as cancer and chronic inflammatory disease,’ he said.

‘Further independent studies, divorced from any influence of government or corporations, are now imperative and urgent.’

Prof Vyvyan Howard is Professor of Bioimaging at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ulster.

He said, ‘We need to change the focus of the debate away from the limited studies that have been done to date onto the size of the irreversible legacy that we are probably going to leave for future generations.’

Tony Combes is director of corporate affairs with GM company Monsanto UK Ltd.

He said it was impossible to draw meaningful conclusions from the first two studies without a full description of the methodology they used and a full review of their findings by other scientists.

And he said the CSIRO decision to halt research and destroy the GM pea that inflamed lung tissue in laboratory mice showed how the regulatory system was working exactly as intended.

Mr Combes said claims of fatalities and ill-health among people and cattle had been disproved.

‘All of these allegations are just as false as GM Free Cymru’s absurd allegation that I was once employed by Defra,’ said Mr Combes.

‘They need to read, mark and learn from the scientific literature rather than relying on media reports of other single-issue pressure groups.’